Obamacare blamed for millions knocked off health insurance

(RNN) - When he was stumping for the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama promised, "If you already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance."

But that will not be the case for millions of Americans.

CBS News stated Tuesday that 2 million notices had been sent to people informing them their health insurance would be canceled. Sources involved in the Affordable Care Act said 50 to 75 percent of the 14 million who buy insurance on their own could expect similar letters within the next year, according to NBC News.

The revelation comes after initial reports that only about 500,000 applications have been completed through the health insurance exchanges, which have been hobbled by technical glitches in Healthcare.gov.

The NBC News
report also made the claim that the Obama Administration knew in 2010 that
ACA regulations would cause a majority of individual insurance buyers to
be dropped - but that allegation may not be as damning as the report
made it sound.

The report said that based on June 2010
regulations, the administration knew that 40 to 67 percent of customers
would not be able to keep their policy because of normal turnover in the
market.

But NBC News misinterpreted the data.

"A variety of studies indicate that between 40 percent and 67 percent of policies are in effect for less than one year," the regulation stated.

The
information in question estimated that was the number of policies
that would be dropped by choice. It said many were meant to be temporary, serving as "a bridge,"
between other coverage, such as when people switch jobs and move from
one employer-based insurance to another.

It was not an estimation of how
many would be canceled because of new ACA regulations.

Despite Obama's claim, which he reiterated in the 2012 campaign, the administration has also said ACA minimum standards would not allow several health insurance plans to qualify. The requirements include coverage of prenatal care and preventative care that may have been missing from older plans.

Policies signed before March 23, 2010, that didn't meet the minimum standards were allowed to remain in effect, grandfathered in by ACA provisions. However, Health and Human Services regulations narrowed the number of exempted policies by stating if a significant change had been made to the deductible, benefits or other "cost-sharing parameters" after the deadline, a policy would lose its grandfather status.

When news of the cancellations broke Monday, White House spokesman Jay Carney had to go on the defensive. He responded to questions of why so many people could not continue on their insurance, despite Obama's "you can keep it" assurances.

"What the president said and what everybody said all along is that there are going to be changes brought about by the Affordable Care Act to create minimum standards of coverage," Carney said.